ABC's Nightline segment last night (12/29/05) promoting Spielberg's Munich was carefully edited to include the use of film clips and location clips, which confirms that this segment was negotiated and orchestrated by Spielberg's publicity machine, from start to finish.
 
Cynthia McFadden opened by literally stating the theme of the "Cycle of Violence." That slogan shaped the segment and reiterated the implied theme of the movie, ending with the clip from the movie showing the Twin Towers, a heavy—handed allusion to 9/11 as noted by Richard Baehr here. 

Though ABC's segment was meant to be an uber—ad for the movie, there were three compelling interviews within: Mossad agent XXX confirmed that the targeted assassinations were not revenge, they were prevention, based on hard intelligence.  Former PM Ehud Barak recounted the 1983 Beirut mission, with the amusing anecdote about having disguised himself as a woman. Then there was Al Hindi, from Black September, who was featured like a reality TV show celebrity.
 
In the end, Cynthia pronounced "the analogy" with Iraq, with the movie clip where Avner (Eric Bana) refuses to return to his homeland of Israel.
 
It almost seemed as if ABC had an off—the—record agreement with Spielberg to end on "the analogy" to teach us dummies what we missed in the movie. 
 
Except, of course, we got it the first time.  Steven Spielberg spent 90 million to produce an op/ed.  He thought he was denouncing George Bush, but instead, he renounced Israel.
 
Whatever.  Will someone tell Steven Spielberg he is a visualist —— not a visionary?

Kate Wright  12 29 05